SUNDAY DEC 23, 2012 BEQUIA, GRENADINES
Well there was definitely a sideways roll from side to side last night as we sailed from Barbados to Bequia and in the middle of the night I was woken by a door opening and one roll, the closing on the roll to the other side. I was not going to get any sleep so out of bed I got and open and shut every door since I could not figure out which door was the problem! Minutes after I was back in bed It started again! Up I got again and opened and slammed the closet door (I had done it gently the frst time so as not to wake Terry but obviously not hard enough!). Back in bed - it started again - by now Terry was awake and he got out of bed and opened the mini bar - a little starnge time for a drink I thought! But no, he had seen wine bottles lying down in the bar the night before and they were lying sideways, so he turned them to the opposite direction - sure enough - they no longer rolled from side to side - and the noises stopped! It was not a door opening and closing at all!
By the way - you pay for all alcoholic beverages in the mini bar but the water and sodas are included. You can also buy an "all inclusive" beverage package for $49 per person plus 15% gratuities - both persons in the cabin have to buy it (one of the two cannot buy it just for them self) and you have to buy it for the entire cruise - you can't select certain days. The package includes almost everything except for premium spirits and champagnes, and wine by the glass which costs more than $10 glass. The Wind Star cruiseline carries a really nice New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc white wine that we enjoy called Chasing Venus - it is $22 bottle plus 15% gratuity. There is no way we need to purchase the beverage package!
As a result of our middle of the night "door slamming" activities we didn't wake up until 820 am (420am in Sechelt) unbelievable - but no doubt a result of early morning wake ups for the last 3 days! We were just pulling into the harbour and were amazed as we looked out of our porthole at the huge number of sail boats anchored in the bay - there were at least 100 - all here for the Christmas season travelling the Caribbean. The Grenadine Islands are a very popular area for private, and chartered, sailboats to spend the Winter. We saw flags and home towns on some of the sailboats from Norway, Sweden, Germany, Canada, USA, Washington State, Toronto, to name a few.
There are 3 places with varying times, for breakfast each morning - continental by the pool on deck 3 or early morning risers, the Verandah on deck 3 for the main breakfast buffet and a la carte ordering, and the pool from 10 until noon for late risers continental breakfast. We threw on shorts and tshirts, grabbed a coffee by the pool and headed to the main lounge for the presentation by Gondalo from Uruguay, the destination Manager on board responsible for shore excursions. There were only about 10 of us at the presentation but it was excellent information and we decided to book the Tobago Cays sail and snorkel for Christmas Day, the clear bottom kayak trip in Grenada, and the catamaran sailing trip in Mayreau Grenadines - we're looking forward to all three!
Afterwards we ate a small continental lunch in the Verandah before taking the tender over to the island of Bequia. We walked along the main frontage road and listened to the singing coming from St ? Anglican Church - outside there were 2 old bells hanging by a rope from the ? foundry and cast in 1866!! The church had all the doors wide open and everything was painted in blue and white - definitely a Caribbean Church! We checked out The Garden boutique across the street - the European owner had lived in Bequia for the last 30 years and opened this store 20 years ago carrying large amounts of hand painted and batik clothing, sarongs and linens - all made locally in Bequia. For a tiny island (5000 square miles) with a population of little more than 5,000 we were surprised at the number of restaurants and supply stores - but of course this is the busy season in Bequia when all the sailboats arrive - all looking to take a break on shore and eat and drink at the local bars and restaurants, get items fixed that may have broken on their sailboats, and also replenish their food and beverage supplies. There are signs announcing order your pizza at VHF47 - so you can even get pizza delivered to your sail boat!
Gondalo had told us of Mac's Pizza restaurant where they made lobster pizza with lots of lobster - highly recommended so we took the recommendation! We walked along the frontage - a two foot wide concrete walkway in front of the restaurants, dive shops, stores and hotels - every time a large swell came in we would jump up or get wet feet and legs! We soon stumbled on Mac's and went to the upstairs deck and ordered their special of the day - lobster pizza! The 9 inch pizza was $90 EC, the 11 inch $110 and the 13" was $115EC. The EC - Eastern Caribbean Currency) is 2.6 to the US$.
It took about 45 minutes for the pizza while we enjoyed the views of the harbour and a couple of diet cokes, all the while listening to the blender as they blended many, many cans of Hunt's tomatoes into tomato sauce - no doubt the base for the pizza! They were also selling Christmas Tree shortbread cookies - $1.50 Ec each or $15Ec for a dozen.
When the pizza arrived it was excellent and far more than we could eat! We took back several pieces wrapped in aluminum foil for Gondalo.
Ultimately we soent nearly 5 hours enjoying Bequia and talking to the locals there before taking the tender back to the Wind Spirit. This really surprised us since it is a small island and we had visited before. Bequia has several, if not many, Rastafarians living there - you could smell the Ganga (marijuana) lingering all over the place and there wee several characters with very interesting faces that we spoke to. After visiting Ethiopia earlier this year we had visited the Rastaland given to the Rastafarians in Ethiopia by Haillie Selassie. here in Bequia we saw several pictures of Haille pinned to the walls and the locals loved to talk to us about their religion and the King of Kings when they knew we were interested in Rasta and had visited Ethiopia.
We also had a discussion with one young man who had just opened a small market building along the front street. His Mother and 3 sisters had moved to Montreal (and still lived there) when he was 4, and had returned for a visit once when he was 9 and again when he was 16 - so he had been living with his Dad or own his own since he was 4 years old. He was now trying to make a business for himself in the green grocery business. His Mother had sent him funds to purchase a fridge and freezer so he was hoping to provide more goods than the locals who had the open air stands along the road with fruit and vegetables (which is where he had started his business). He was so proud of what he had and took us through the store explaining every piece of fruit and vegetable and what it was. That night he was taking the 1 hour ferry ride to St Vincent - the large island next to Bequia - to pick up more supplies for his store. We really like this young man and hope he is in Bequia and doing well when we return next time.
SECHELT, BRITISH COLUMBIA
WINTER IS ON IT'S WAY
Monday, December 24, 2012
Saturday, December 22, 2012
Wednesday DEC 18-20, 2012 VANCOUVER - DALLAS FORT WORTH - MIAMI - BARBADOS
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| HEADING TO THE FERRY, SUNSHINE COAST BC CANADA |
We arrived on time into Horseshoe Bay after the 40 minute ferry trip and the weather was getting worse with every mile! By the time we arrived downtown Vancouver the traffic was very heavy, there were buses stopped all over the place and it got worse! We went over the bridge and then got stuck on Granville street it was closed - the streets were rutted ice and there were cars sliding everywhere! On the news we heard all the traffic and weather reports - the brand new Port Mann Bridge opened just two weeks earlier was closed due to ice falling from the overhead struts and damaging cars and injuring passengers in the cars! The TransLink bus service had most of their buses stopped all over the city because of the slippery roads. The Vancouver City folks responsible for the roads said this was the worst combination of weather causing havoc on the roads that they had seen in 7 years - but not to worry - the bicycle lanes had priority and 3 men assigned to them to keep them clear!!
Suffice it to say we finally arrived at Vancouver airport more than 2 hours after leaving the Horseshoe Bay ferry terminal - we were so glad to have not had an accident with the car! It was good to have had the 4WD as we used it all through downtown Vancouver. We left the Jeep at Park N Fly and enjoyed a well earned beverage with dinner. Tomorrow we fly to Miami via Dallas Fort Worth with American Airlines - our flight departs at 840am.
Thursday Dec 19, 2012 Vancouver to Miami via Dallas
Well everything went smoothly for us. The usual service on the flights these days (we were flying American Airlines) we actually had 1 free checked bag and got a cup of coffee on 1 flight and a coke on the next flight! Not to worry, Terry had picked up a box of 20 TIMBITS (donuts) in Vancouver at Tim Hortons and a mocha coffee! In Dallas we picked up a tuna salad sandwich and cobb salad as we walked from gate to gate. We only had a 45 minute connect time between flights and it's a good job we weren't any later arriving since our flight Dallas to Miami was over sold by 18 seats!!!!
Once we had our luggage we had to take the elevator back up to level 2 then walk about 10 minutes to terminal E for the Miami Airport Hotel where we had a reservation - thank goodness - since when we arrived at 830pm they had big signs everywhere saying "SOLD OUT NO ROOMS AVAILABLE" quite fitting at this time of the year don't you think?!! On the way to the hotel we passed a massive snaking long line and up above it said "REBOOKING _ MISSED CONNECTIONS". There was a huge snow storm through the midwest yesterday with up to 19 inches of snow in some areas and over 1,000 flights were cancelled in the USA yesterday. This same storm passed through BC and the West Coast over the last couple of days. But not to worry we haven't said Goodbye to it yet - tomorrow they are forecasting freezing conditions in Miami although they are saying that storm and cold front is coming down from the North West.
We caught up on email using our "internet on the go" hot spot that we bought last year for the USA - and shared a sandwich from room service. Even managed to watch the finale of Xfactor on TV before it was lights out and we crashed. Considering that we are 3 hours ahead in Miami 11pm still felt like 11pm to us! The rooms here are small but really quiet when you consider how many planes and passengers are coming and going. They have been recently refurbished with a comfortable oversized easy chair and oversized round red leather ottoman to put your feet up on while watching the flat screen TV.
Friday Dec 21, 2012 Miami to Barbados
When the alarm went off at 6am we were both fast asleep, and struggled to come awake. It was a good night's sleep even though we did wake up a couple of times - I think waking up at 2am in Vancouver the morning before had something to do with it! The day started with Terry having a broken hearing aid - the last time this happened was exactly 12 months ago when we were in St Barts & St Maarten and there was no way to get this fixed until we arrived back in Sechelt. Terry sent a quick email to Linda in Sechelt, who will be joining us next week, but we are very doubtful that she can get any assistance from Terry's hearing aid supplier in Sechelt before joining us - we can but hope!
We had breakfast at the Miami Airport Hotel in the 7th floor Top of the ? restaurant included with the room (eggs, ham, hash browns and toast with coffee) and then went downstairs to checkin - back to terminal D for international flights. Then the fun started. First we had to line up to check ourselves in - lots of people having significant difficulty doing this, some machines not working and an American Airlines personnel would eventually appear to help. After checking ourselves in and declaring how many bags we had we then had to go to another line at the end of the bank of "self service" machines and line up to have our bags weighed (max 50 pound each ) and tagged. Then we went to another very long line - at least 50 passengers - to drop off our tagged bags!
While in "drop bags" line, another set back - the conveyor belt stopped working! So the next 20 or so passengers were told to drop their checked bags in front of the counter - and two old shrunken grey haired men (at least in their 70's) came tottering out from behind the door where the conveyor belt normally disappears with your precious bags. These two chaps started pulling the bags with handles and wheels back behind the two swinging doors - this was not a very speedy operation but no problem, a supervisor then appears and tells us to "follow him" with our bags. So we followed as if he was the Pied Piper and we walked IN A LINE for another hundred yards to the very end of the conveyor belt for the next bank of checkin counters! He took our bags and threw them on to the conveyor belt just as it disappeared under the flapping plastic as I looked at our bags, I turned to Terry and said "it's too bad I didn't have my camera out to take a photo since I am not sure we will ever see those bags again!"
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| SANTA ON THE BEACH AT OISTINS, BARBADOS |
Then it was off to the SECURITY line (yes it was a very long line) - no problems - we stripped naked, placed everything on the conveyor belt and walked through the Xray machine which did NOT buzz! OK OK we weren't quite naked! On the other side (we have now spent the last 60 minutes in lines) we go two flights up and catch the SKY TRAIN to gate D43 for our 1005am flight to Barbados. While on the SkyTrain a complete flight crew of 5 including the PILOT get off at the wrong station!!! and then run back into our carriage. I am pretty sure they will be our flight crew today and miss the turn off in the sky for Barbados!
At gate D43 there is an announcement that the flight is "over sold" and they are looking for 8 passengers to voluntarily NOT fly to Barbados and they will each receive $800 voucher for a future flight - no, that would not be us offering to do that! Then as instructed we all line up to board the flight - then an announcement tells us to sit back down - the pilot has called the Maintenance department! The flight is expected to be delayed by 15 minutes.
About 45 minutes after scheduled departure we are boarded and waiting to depart. The Pilot tells us that the brakes have been fixed, but that one passenger has not boarded and they are now looking for the "needle in the proverbial haystack" looking for the one checked bag of that passenger so that they can take it off the plane so that we can leave! We eventually leave about 50 minutes behind schedule for the 3 hour 8 minute 1600 mile flight. We lost 2 hours in our time zone between Vancouver and Dallas, 1 hour between Dallas and Miami, and 1 more hour today between Miami and Barbados. So we are now 4 hours ahead of Vancouver time and scheduled to arrive in Barbados around 3:10pm. The sky is blue over the Caribbean Sea with white clouds dotted everywhere. The forecast for Barbados is 29 degrees with some rain showers in the area.
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| VIEW FROM OUR ROOM, HILTON HOTEL BARBADOS |
Terry is already fast asleep in the seat next to me (no surprise there!) so I am enjoying the views out the window of the blue seas below and the Turks & Caicos islands, and I am already picturing swimming on Mullins Beach and my first rum punch ............
We arrived at the Grantley Adams airport in Barbados at 310pm - and after completing the immigration forms, were quickly processed into the country - quite a change from last time we arrived two years ago in December 2010 when there were several large jets all arrived at the same time and the lineup was long and slow, especially as many folks were given priority for entry and we never could figure out why! We picked up a bottle of Barbados Mount Gay rum for under $10 at the duty free store before we exited outside into the very warm and humid temperatures. As we landed we could see quite a lot of rain cloud around but at least it wasn't raining!
We had reserved half a car at STOUTE's Car rental which is a few yards outside the arrival baggage exit doors. I say half a car since Terry had booked a KIA something or other - as soon as the rental clerk said KIA I knew it wasn't going to be a large car!
We drop the car off tomorrow at the cruise ship terminal when we check on to the Wind Spirit. As we flew in this afternoon we flew over the cruise ship terminal and were amazed to see 6 cruise ships (4 large and 2 smaller) plus a ship with sails which is probably the Wind Spirit since we will be on the first sailing after the Wind Spirit comes out of dry dock and a major refit. But we were amazed to see 6 ships - Barbados is so far South it is quite unusual to see that number of cruise ships here.
Anyway - our luggage fit into the back seat of the KIA and our two carryon bags fit into the 6 inches classified as the trunk! We decided to stop in OISTIN's town on the way - Friday night is fish fry night each week, a major event with hundreds of folks coming for fish and chips from all over Barbados. We were early arriving around 430 but we enjoyed excellent dolphin (Bajan for Mahi Mahi) and chips with macaroni and green salad along with Banks beer and rum and coke sitting at a blue picnic bench. There are perhaps 30 restaurants here but we bought ours from De Red Snapper (we did pass up the "BELLY HURT HIDE AWAY ROTI SHOP" that we drove past on the way to Oistins!)
We visited with the locals, we played with 4 year old Mark - hide and seek with his hands and feet wearing a New York jacket approximately the right size for a 16 year old! I must say that Bajan's (what folks from Barbados are called) are very friendly, always have a ready smile. They speak English - but it's fast and like a pidgin English and trying to understand it is mostly impossible for me - even after asking folks to repeat something 3 times!
Then it was a drive along the coast road past The Gap in St Lawrence (a happening place especially on the weekends with lots of bars and restaurants, and a small harbour where we almost got dumped from a very small dive boat back in the 1980's). We were booked into the Hilton at Lighthouse Point for one night - this is very close to the main town of Bridgetown. (Terry had stayed here once before around 1969). It was dark when we arrived around 630pm and all the Christmas lights were lit on all the palm trees trunks, and the banisters and railings - very effective. This is obviously the hotel where all the airlines' crew are put up overnight - lots of them in uniform in the lobby.
There are two towers with rooms and our room 565 is in the Fort Tower overlooking the remains of historic St Ann's Fort at Needham point with its' many cannons still in place here from when it guarded the entrance to Bridgetown and Carlysle Bay. Our room looks South East over the ocean and below us is a very large free form swimming pool, bar and beautiful beach with lots of sun cots. The grounds are quite large and we enjoyed wandering around and enjoying the humid warm night under the stars. This is the weekend before Christmas and there are several parties under way for local businesses, some of them quite large, so lots of happy people about enjoying the season.
The rooms are very nice - tile floors, large bathrooms, updated linens, flat screen TV, mini fridge and coffee making supplies. Considering the age of the hotel it feels very contemporary. There is also internet available at $26 per day in the room, and free WIFI in the downstairs lobby. We had trouble getting access in the room and imagine my surprise when I was transferred to the IT department - I was connected to a French Canadian in Calgary Alberta Canada - Jeanne Marie!!
We sat on our deck enjoying a night cap before going to bed - are we really here? You bet and we plan to enjoy every moment!!!!
HONG KONG TO VANCOUVER - NOV 3, 2012
NOV 3, 2012 TIME TO GO HOME
HONG KONG TO VANCOUVER
coming soon ******
HONG KONG TO VANCOUVER
coming soon ******
KOWLOON SHOPPING - NOV 2, 2012
KOWLOON, HONG KONG ISLAND - FRIDAY NOV 2, 2012
Another day of walking our feet off! We started with breakfast on the 20th floor terrace in the Club Lounge overlooking all the activity in Victoria Harbour. Then it was the shuttle to the Kowloon Hotel and a leisurely walk along Nathan Street (where one end is very high end jewellry stores to the other end, very Chinese and lower priced local goods). Most of the stores don't open until at least 10am so we had all the time in the world. We bought nail polish in a variety of colours at "Bonjour", then after meeting up with Brenda and Mary Lou we all stopped for coffee and milk shakes at the 24 hour McDonalds (and a bathroom break as well!).
We arrived at 12 noon at the "Ladies Market" which runs from 12 noon until 5pm every day - and found that better than 50% of the stalls were just setting their goods up for sale - so a slow walk through took us 2 hours! We did buy a couple of miscellaneous items (purse, belt, watch) buy by 2pm our feet and knees were complaining so we took the MRT underground rail transit system at the Yau Ma Tei station back down Nathan to the Tsim Sha Tsui station ($4 HK each). After debating, we decided to walk over to the Harbour City Centre (huge 3 level shopping mall with every high end store you can imagine). Unfortunately after walking in circles a couple of times we concluded that we couldn't find the food we fancied, the price we were willing to pay - or the restaurant we were looking for! So we caught the shuttle back to the Harbour Plaza Metropolis and went for afternoon tea (with cookies and chocolates) in the Club Lounge- where we met up with some of the group and shared an hour chatting on the outdoor deck. That's when we found out the sad story about one of the others in the group having their wallet, credit cards, and money stolen this afternoon. More than one hour later they were still on the phone to the credit card companies getting them cancelled - such a sad way to finish 28 wonderful days in Singapore, Borneo, Bali and Hong Kong.
THE PEAK AND STANLEY MARKET, HONG KONG - NOV 1, 2012
THE PEAK & STANLEY MARKET, HONG KONG - Thursday Nov 1, 2012
This turned out to be a long, busy and successful day! We were all booked into Club Rooms at the Harbour Plaza Metropolis - so everyone ran into each other enjoying the wonderful breakfast in the 20th floor Club Room, and a wonderful breakfast it was. Cold cuts, salmon, cheeses, crackers, pastries, eggs cooked to order, sausage, baked beans, bacon, wonderful breads for toasting - more than anyone could eat! So although we had planned a 10am departure from the lobby we were all down in the lobby at 910am and caught the 920am shuttle to the Kowloon Hotel which is right next to the harbour front where the Star Ferries depart from.
We were soon all on the lower deck of the ferry after purchasing tickets for $? HK each at the machine - you receive change and a blue token as your ticket for the ferry which takes about 10 minutes to cross Victoria Harbour from the Kowloon mainland side to the Hong Kong island side. Then we walked about 10 blocks, slowly going uphill, until we reached the lower terminal for the PEAK TRAM which takes you to the top of the mountain. This opens at 10am each day and we were there shortly after 1030am and we thought there were quite a few folks in the lineup. However, when we came back down about 12:25pm we were horrified to see a very long line snaking around the side walk - it was very long so we felt very lucky to have had just maybe 30 or 40 folks in front of us!
We bought a ticket at $65HK $39 for seniors over age 64) each which allows you to to take the return trip on the tram as well as access to the Sky Deck on top. The ride up is quite steep, no I really mean VERY steep, and most everyone sits on the tram (125 year old furnicular) facing up hill not downhill - we decided it is less scary looking at where you are going versus how far down can be! The tram stops at a couple of stations on the way up but we all arrived safely at the top! The top was the final holdout for the British forces occupying Hong Kong against the Japanese invasion in 1941 (The Last Bastion was how the newspapers printed the story back in 1941). It is a few years since Terry and I rode up to the Peak and we were amazed at how much construction has gone on since then - the Sky Deck is about 10 stories high - and not enjoying heights, I hated the escalators going up in mid air with glass walls on the side looking straight down over 1300 meters to Victoria Harbour below! However - the views were amazing - what a huge harbour and massive number of buildings there are surrounding Victoria Harbour. The Sky Deck is outside and it was quite windy, but we had a beautiful sunny, blue sky day so amazing views - great for our photographs.
Each of the floors in the new building leading to the Sky Deck have stores on them - so this is a big marketing and shopping centre now. Several of us enjoyed a variety of gelato flavours at ? - we especially enjoyed the coconut and pandas palm flavour! But I also heard sighs of delight at the three different chocolate flavours, then there was the mango, pistachio....... I'm sure you get the picture! (55HK for 1 scoop, 68HK for 2 scoops, and 83HK for 3 scoops). We rode down back to the starting point for the tram and several of us were standing - when you stand you are leaning a long way back to stand perpendicular to the hill side because it is so steep. We had lots of chuckles as one of the group leant forward through the bars due to the slope and her boobs were displayed quite grandly!
This is when we saw the huge lineup to go UP to the Peak and we were so glad not to be in that line. We started to walk over to the moving escalator, which is an outside escalator, and goes a long way up the hill for those folks who live up the hill. We stopped to ask the policemen in a police wagon next to the USA Consulate if we were on the correct route, but eventually decided to skip the escalator and head straight to the Exchange (bus terminal)where the buses depart from. The next stop for us was Stanley Market - built on the shore of a bay on the opposite side of Hong Kong Island. You can catch bus number 6, 6A and 6X which all cross over the island, or the #260 Express which goes through the Aberdeen Tunnel, directly to the other side. To get there reasonably quickly we caught the 260 Express ($10.80HK each) that departed at 1224pm and were in Stanley Market by 1pm after some amazing drives along the far side of the island - narrow roads, hairpin turns. lots of traffic - and did I mention that these are double decker buses and we were all sitting upstairs at the front of the bus! Everyone breathed in every time another double decker came racing around the corner towards us and we swore that there was only a few inches between the two buses as they passed! The views were spectacular and seeing these incredible high rises and amazing designs was a wonderful sight seeing trip all on its' own!
At the terminus in Stanley Market - everyone went their separate ways and we arranged to meet back at the bus stop at 330pm for anyone wanting to return back to Kowloon and the Harbour Plaza Metropolis Hotel with us. The first purchases that we saw made were small 5" by 7" colour paintings of names done in Chinese characters ($30HK each). Then there were the pashminas (2 for $100HK) and small pure silk square scarves ($10HK) - yes, everyone was going to have fun shopping in the Stanley Market as did we. In fact, that night we shopped at the Night Market in Kowloon, and the next day the Ladies' Market in Kowloon - and everyone agreed that shopping at the Stanley Market was the most enjoyable and the best prices.
After walking through the market we came out
BALI TO HONG KONG - OCT 31, 2012 HALLOWEEN
OCT 31, 2012 BALI INDONESIA TO HONG KONG
TRANSFER DAY
coming soon ********
TRANSFER DAY
coming soon ********
BEACH & SPA, TANJUNG BENOA - OCT 30, 2012
OCT 30, 2012
LAST DAY ON THE BEACH IN TANJUNG BENOA, BALI
coming soon *********
LAST DAY ON THE BEACH IN TANJUNG BENOA, BALI
coming soon *********
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